Teaching English in Korea is something I've wanted to do for ages - about 20 years to be exact. And on my bucket list I have 'Live in a non-English speaking country for a year,' and 'live in an apartment building.' Now I will get to cross both of those off the list :-) making way for even more exciting prospects.
So how did this adventure eventuate? I hear you asking ... and I reply 'It was like this ...'
Remember back in 2009 I took a years leave from LAC and spent some time travelling around NZ. Then I needed a job so I was applying to all sorts of non-chemistry-non-high-school-teaching jobs? And only got four replies, and of those four only one worked out - in 2010 I ended up going to BHHEC, the health retreat in South Dakota? But not before God surprised me by sending me back to teach high school in Sydney for the last half of 2009.
OK so having remembered all that context here is where Korea fits in. One of the non-chemistry-non-high-school-teaching jobs I applied for was to teach English at the SDA English Language Institutes in South Korea. And I never got a reply! Now skip forward about 18 months. I've done the teaching stint in Sydney, had a wonderful time at the Health Retreat in South Dakota and am half way through the Evangelism Course at Amazing Facts. And I'm wondering 'What am I going to do next??' So of course I do the obvious thing and pray about it. One Sabbath morning not long after I had started praying this prayer I wake up to find an email in my in-box. From Korea, it says, essentially, "We just found your application, we thought it was spam, you are more than qualified for the job, do you still want to come? When can you start?"
Given the prayer I had been praying it was an easy jump to assume that God's plan for me was to go to Korea to teach English and Bible. But, there was a little voice planting doubt in the back of my mind saying 'Don't get too excited, you're not really going to get to go...'
I did want to go but was also listening to that little doubting voice so I prayed that 'if I wasn't supposed to go that God would close the door and open another one and that I didn't want my not going to be the result of my just giving up because it got hard but it had to be a God thing.'
Well I can report that every step of the way has been a battle!!!!!
First thing was with the collection of all the documents I had to get to apply for the visa. Nothing went according to plan:
1. Had to get an photocopy of my degree certificate notarised by an Australian Notary Public - because it's an Australian degree. So I headed off to the Australian Consulate in Auckland because I figured that that was the most likely place to find an Australian notary Public. And I was right. But, they refused to notarise the photocopy because they said that it was not possible to do the second thing I needed to do with the document - which I will explain in point 2. They said that Korea was not a party to the Hague Convention (which turns out to be wrong) and that I couldn't get an Apostile on a photocopy regardless of if it had been notarised or not. So I came home and sent an email to the Australian Passport office, who are the people who do Apostile's and about three days later got a very unhelpful reply - copy and paste from their website which I had already read and did not answer my question. So then I tried to ring them, after battling my way through the 'press 1 for this and 2 for that' system and ending up at the same answer phone each time I eventually left a message with my phone number - and never got a reply. With time running out I decided to try my luck at the consulate again, but this time not tell them why I wanted the notarised photocopy. So I drove the 45mins back to the consulate again, paid the exorbitant parking fees again and prayed. This time the mission was crowned with success.
2. The second step in the process was to get an Apostile seal on the notarised photocopy. I had decided based on what the first person I had talked to at the consulate had said that I would post the notarised photocopy and the original of the certificate and a covering letter explaining that I wanted the Apostile on the photocopy and not on the original but that I was sending both so that they could see the original. The problem with this plan was that when I graduated I had proudly got my degree certificate framed and the framers glued the certificate onto the backing board so I had to pull the frame apart to even get close enough to the certificate to make a photocopy and then post certificate with attached backing board (75cm by 50cm) but not wooden surrounds to Oz. So I get the biggest courier envelope I can find - which turns out to be just the right size and send it all off to Oz. Three days later I get an email from Oz say 'You didn't need to send the original, and we don't have an envelope big enough to send it back to you please organise yourself a courier.' My Mum helped with that - actually she did everything, seeing as she actually knows about international couriers. However even there there was problems.
3. I had to get a criminal report from the NZ Ministry of Justice to prove I'm not a criminal and the I had to get an Apostile on that - but this Apostile had to come from Wellington as it was a NZ document.
Now roll on the 2nd of March, it's a Wednesday night, I've managed to collect all the other documents I need but the photocopied, notarised, apostiled degree certificate (and the glued and oversized original) are still in Sydney while I have not seen the criminal report at all, so have had no chance to even get the Apostile on it. The next day (Thursday) I was going to Palmerston North (550km south) for the weekend and all the documents had to be posted by Friday to arrive in Korea in time to get a visa issuance number - so that then i could go to the Korean Consulate in Auckland and get the actual visa. Anyway I'm looking at the impossibility of actually completing this task and thinking - 'Is this where it gets impossible?' And I almost emailed Korea and told them I would not be able to come, that the door was closed. But something held me back from actually sending the email. Instead remembering that PN is only an hour and a half drive from Wellington I emailed the Apostille office and asked if it was possible to walk in and get an Apostile straight away? Prayed about everything - some more - and went to bed hoping that te criminal report would turn up in the mail in the morning. In the morning criminal report had not turned up but I had a brainwave. I rang the Ministry of Justice also in Wellington and asked if it was possible to come and collect the criminal report. I explained about having sent the forms in almost a month ago and needing to have it that day to get my visa. They eventually agreed that they would do me a favour and issue another criminal report (I have since got the first one in the mail - weeks later) to me if I cam to their office on Friday. So Mum contacted the courier people to deliver the stuff from Oz to their Wellington Depot, I emailed Korea and they agreed that if I could email them scans of all the collected documents before Monday then if the actual documents themselves were not there they would be able to begin the process, but the original documents had to be there by the end of the week.
So with more Hope in my heart I went first to PN, then on to Wellington carrying with me all the other documents I needed, and everything just fell into place. I arrived at the Ministry of Justice Records Office and walked out 5 mins later with the Criminal Report clutched in my hand. From there went straight to the place that does the Apostiles and 10 mins later had that as well. The degree certificate package duly arrived at the Wellington courier depot and was collected and that only left getting a passport photo - I had forgotten that. And that was the only drama of the day. I'd also forgotten how windy Wellington can be and had left my hair down for the day. That resulted in me being turned into a brunette dandelion the moment I got out of the car and necessitated the purchase and use of a hairbrush before any photos could be taken. Praise God I was able to email scans of all the documents to Korea by the end of the day and post the originals on Sunday morning. Visa Issuance Number was sent to me about a week and a half later.
4. A few days after that I had my interview at the Korean Consulate, left my passport and was assured that it would be sent back to me with the visa in it within the week. About one day before I was supposed to get my passport and visa I got a phone call from the consulate saying that their visa system was not working and that they were going to send my passport to the embassy in Wellington and that it would take a few more days to get the passport and visa back. But it didn't I got it the very next day. And it turned out to be blessing as I was living in Hamilton by then (getting to practise being a Bible Worker) so I was able to organise for delivery to come directly yo me, rather than via my sister. (Which is normally what happens to my mail.)
5. Another drama, I had to get a health form filled in, but the doctor did not want to sign the form as he was not my personal GP and had only seen me once before and that over a year ago + my blood pressure was up, stress - I wonder why ... (Is fine again now!) Eventually he agreed to give me a few weeks grace and said that if I could get blood pressure under control he would sign the form but would add a note to say that this was based on the medical history I gave him as he filled the form in. My Personal GP lives hours and hours away and hasn't seen me in something like 4 years. So I don't think he'd have done any better.
6. The current drama: Before the school in Korea will buy my plane tickets I have to do two things 1. get the visa - done, and 2. be approved to go to Korea by the General Conference (part of our church organisation for my non-SDA friends) and before that happens I have to be approved by the office in Australia. And they have lost my references. Which were sent to them ages ago! I'm supposed to be leaving in about 10 days and the tickets have yet to be bought and this is again one of those situations where there is nothing left that I can do. (I hate those!) So I'm praying very hard and I would appreciate it if you would all pray too.
In the mean time I'm packing my bags because I do believe that Korea is where I'm meant to go next. Today I was reading a 'Note' by Pr Dan Augsberger entitled 'Are You Serious When You Pray? and realised I had never actually asked God if it was His will for me to go to Korea - had just assumed it was and had asked for Him to close doors if it wasn't. So I prayed then and there about if it was His will, and then at the bottom of the note was a bit about how we should all either go on missions or support someone else going on missions. An immediate answer - I'm available and willing to go. So will just have to have faith that in the next 10 days everything will be sorted out and I will end up in Korea.
Guess this is just the next lesson in 'building faith 101' for me. The one that follows me driving half way across the states to Weimar because I believed that was where I was supposed to be even though I did not have the money to cover the fee's and had no idea if I would even be allowed to stay in the country, and had to drive a stick shift on the wrong side of the road ;-) And that turned out to be a wonderful blessing!! So I'm fully expecting Korea will also be a wonderful blessing!! (Even if I can't avoid the kimchi pizza...)
PS I now have one of the references. the first time the references were sent I'd got my referees to send references directly to the Ozzie Office, now I have contacted them again and am getting them individually re-sent to the office and cc'd to me.
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